Unleashing ideas. Strengthening startups.

Up2School

Abstract

Our company is wishful to provide comprehensive help to French students while they prepare for the demanding competitive entrance exams of French business schools (follow up of news, methodology, geopolitics,...).

These services for students are absolutely free.

For two years, we've built an important online community that now gather about 14,000 students.

Yet, we've recently started to work with a dozen of business schools which are interesting in promoting their business programs thanks to our community.

These schools are willing to pay for further services: advertising in our two yearly magazines, online interviews of their members,...

There are definitely great prospects, as previous services are not that efficient and as the French business schools total budget dedicated to promotion and advertising is situated between 150M€ and 200M€. All of them are looking for serious, efficient, comprehensive and simple services, that do not actually exist.

You'll find under a series of videos that sum up our second conference about entrance exams. A great conference (mostly paid BSB, a business school and partner for this time).

Video

Photos

Additional Questions

Who is your customer?

Two types of customers:
1) We provide help to French exchange students who are getting prepared for demanding competitive entrance exams of top French business schools. Methodology, follow up of news, advises on schools, ... It's all FREE for them, and will always be. Most of our activities come from our website MajorPrepa: 14,000 likes on FB.
If we make benefits from it (like the previous magazine bough by some first year students, in December 2016), we give all of them to a caritative organization, Kpalimé Cycling Project.
2) But we started to sell a large array of services to schools which wish to promote their programs and attract top students: live conferences, interviews, articles,...

What problem does this idea/product solve or what market need does it serve?

1) For the students; no website before Up2School provided sufficient FREE online advises. No we're doing our upmost to help them as much as we can (free magazine for second year students, online articles that deal about many things: methodology, news, how to well choose a school,...)
2) Few services existed for the French business schools to promote their programs they offer. They are quite expensive and, in our mind, bias, with websites overwhelmed with ads,... (we don't have any).

What attributes will make this idea/product successful? Why do you believe that those features will create success?

1) For students, we try to write articles (magazine or website) that deal with everything:
-homework
-how to succeed at the exams
-how to choose a school
-how tuition fees are evolving
-geopolitics,...
A team of 50 volunteer redactors is always ready to write articles, so there is always activity on our websites!
We have experienced what they're currently living so it's easier for us and for them.
2) For schools:
- We try to provide them serious and honest services at a good price
- Once they've paid, we always try to give them a little bit more than the initial service (extra interview, statistics about the readings of an article,...).

Explain how you (your team) will execute to make this idea/product successful? What gives you (your team) an advantage over others already in the market or new to this market?

We have plenty of new projects that, in our mind, will please both students and schools managers.
- A new magazine for the oral exams (French exams for business schools= written exams+oral exams) to come in May/June. Similar to the first one, of December, with further pieces of information and advises about the exams.
- Live interviews in May & June: school managers will have some time to present their programs, and their will have a time for live questions with students.
- Working with highly ranked business schools.

Team Leader

Nicolas Berrou

HEC Paris/ USC

I am a French exchange student from HEC Paris, and really interested in entrepreneurship. In France, beside studies, I help developing Up2School which helps French students in their follow up of news and for methodology